We have been taking walks up to our neighbor’s house while she is in Montana. The road runs east/west from the pavement to the east up to the neighbor’s house to the west. We were heading back to the house when I snapped this image of our cute little house and some of the desert vegetation along the way. Click on the image to enlarge.

Monsoon season brings a lot of beautiful skyscapes including this nice vision of our giant saguaro cactus silhouetted against the background of cumulus clouds that will eventually gather together to pour a little rain over the desert landscape. Click on the image to enlarge.

We drained the spa yesterday and filled it today and added the the new chemicals we ordered last week. The water is now crystal clear and we enjoyed a nice session in the spa this afternoon.

After a half hour or so, the clouds got together and a little rain started up. We heard thunder and saw one lightning flash. We decided to get out of the tub, have a couple of beers and retire to indoors. We love monsoon season. Click on the image to enlarge.

I hiked up the hill behind our house to approximately the middle of the north property line. I took a couple of images back toward the south and composed the panoramic image using Canon’s Photo Stitch utility.

There is another half-acre lot just behind where I stood to capture this view - the property and the house on it are owned by the parents-in-law of the contractor that built our house. I was checking out just how private our spa and patio area might be as seen from their back patio. It looks like our patio and spa are relatively private, especially if we turn on the floods over the RV drive and keep the patio dark. (Skinny dipping? Naaaah!)

Click on the image to enlarge.

Problem is, they’re going to crash US and not THEM - Dow was -198 and S&P -27. They’re all idiots in Washington (with very few exceptions).

We planted a couple of smaller saguaro cacti near the entrance to the RV pull-thru. These, unlike the 13-foot “big guy,” are only about four feet tall. We call them LG1 and LG2 (LG for little guy). This is a close-up I took of LG1 this morning. Click on the image to enlarge.

All three saguaro cacti were delivered and planted by David Morales, a cactus farmer in Congress AZ. Dave has been on “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel transplanting a 20 footer to a private home. He also has planted several saguaros for George Strait, the well-known country and western entertainer.

This brightly colored flower grows on three shrubs in our courtyard. The shrub, red bird of paradise, a.k.a. pride of Barbados, will produce these pretty flowers all summer long. Come November, we will prune these back to just a foot or so while they go dormant until next spring when they will bounce back with twice as many flowers.

Anyone who has read our blog for a while will know that these flowers are my favorites. Click on the image to enlarge.

Our little Cabela, a miniature pincher, enjoys playing with her toys. She leaps from the sofa to the love seat and back while we chase her in a game of keep away around the cocktail table in the great room every evening. Here she is capturing one of the several toys she has in her inventory.

We adopted this wonderful little pet just under a year ago. We were so lucky to be the first in line to apply as ‘parents’ to Cabela, who is now a complete family member. Click on the image to enlarge.

I had just taken the dogs out on the road to “do their business,” when Damsel caught me coming in the courtyard looking all happy and retired. Folks, I gotta tell you that today was a VERY good day - food, spa, relaxation, reading and entertainment. Click on the image to enlarge.

We weren’t sure about the name of this cactus, so we asked the garden shop that sold it to us. They said it’s an Argentine Giant Cactus. I looked it up on-line and found the Latin name, Echinopsis candicans. Yesterday, it produced another beautiful white flower. We already had three other flowers earlier in June. Click on the image to enlarge.

We missed posting yesterday due to out-of-town visitors.

P.S. Happy Birthday to Cap’n Bob.